Jelena will always do well in tennis: mother (Australian Open diary)

Melbourne, Jan 27 (IANS) Comeback girl Jelena Dokic’s mother has described her daughter as “unbelievable” and someone who would always succeed in tennis.”She was always excellent in school, excellent in tennis,” Liliana was quoted as saying in the Herald Sun.

“Of course, she has now come back and I hope maybe one day she and my son will be here (in Australia) together.”

“If they are happy, I will be happy too.”

Now divorced from her overbearing husband, Liliana said she no longer spoke with Jelena’s father and was focused on mending the fractured relationship with her tennis star daughter.

“I speak always a day before the match,” she said. “It doesn’t matter what happened with me or Damir, it is not important now. Now what is important is my daughter and my son.”

Liliana had not spoken publicly about her daughter’s career in nearly a decade. She has been overshadowed by the behaviour of Jelena’s overbearing, now estranged, father and one-time coach Damir, who forced the family to leave Australia in 2001.

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Djokovic was under-prepared: Todd Woodbridge

Australian tennis great Todd Woodbridge has taken a strong stance on defending champion Novak Djokovic’s decision to pull out from the quarter-final match against Andy Roddick because of cramps.

After watching Djokovic struggle against Roddick in the heat, Woodbridge said: “I felt that he was under-prepared.”

“Although he was in Australia early enough, perhaps too much of the time was spent on the golf course rather than the practice courts.”

“Djokovic’s decision to withdraw was a blow to the tournament. He was the defending champion, a proven drawcard and a player of the future,” he said.

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I learned a lot from Agassi: Verdasco

Spain’s Fernando Verdasco, who dismissed Britain’s big hope Andy Murray to set up a quarter-final with Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, said he received advice from former No.1 Andre Agassi when he was in Las Vegas for training.

Verdasco trained with Agassi’s coach Gil Reyes in Las Vegas early in the season.

“I am so happy to be working with him. For me it was, you know, one of my big experiences. I learned so much from him,” Verdasco said of Agassi, who was trained by Reyes for many years.

“It was the 24th of December, everybody was leaving Las Vegas because it was Christmas time,” Verdasco said. “Agassi came to say hi to me, and I was speaking with him. I don’t want to say what he told me, because that’s secret.”